Discussion Friday – Cover Buys

Well HAPPY EASTER everyone! I don’t know what day you’re actually mean to say that as their is damn 4 days of Easter, 3 with names and it’s confusing. But anyway, here is my second Discussion Friday post! If you saw my post on Sunday, I think, I explained why I missed last weeks Discussion Friday, but if you didn’t see it… I was at the pub drinking, didn’t get home till 3 in the morning and that was not happening after 3am, so I missed a week, oh well, moving on!

Now onto the discussion! I want to break this kinda into sections so it’s not just a tonne of paragraphs all over the place..

Have I Purchased Any Books ONLY Because Of The Cover?

Yes, yes I have. It happens occasionally. I have 2 books on my TBR shelves that are Cover Buys and they are Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon & These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. So two isn’t that bad and they are both books that I think I might read eventually, probably more likely These Broken Stars as I’m mainly a Sci-Fi & Fantasy reader. That probably sounds bad because I know that Everything, Everything is meant to be really good and it’s diverse, but I don’t really read diverse books, purely because I don’t enjoy contemporary as much as fantasy and there is a limited amount of diverse characters in fantasy books. But if you have suggestions of diverse fantasy, please share them in the comments!

Why I don’t generally ONLY cover buy

So I usually have pretty good control of myself when it comes to book buying. This is partially, well actually mainly because I can’t afford to be wasting money on books that are just going to sit on my shelves and never get read! Sorry but I aint that rich! So I usually control myself. I never go to bookstores either, so that helps. I wish I could go to book stores but I live 3 hours from the nearest decent one and it’s also alot dearer than Book Depository! So I don’t have the impulse to buy books that I see are beautiful sitting on the shelf, because I don’t shop in book stores and looking at books on Book Depository doesn’t have the same effect.

Why I think cover buying is fine, if done right

So, no I will never think only cover buys are okay, meaning books that you pick up and think ‘hey this is pretty, but I don’t know anything about it, it’s a genre I don’t read? Oh well it’s beautiful’ and put it in your basket. That’s just not smart, if you have more money than me, by all means waste it on books that will sit on your shelf for years and never be touched. But I’m not about that life.

How I Cover Buy

What I mean by done right, is I think the way you go about buying books that you didn’t just go onto book depository or into the book store specifically looking for. So, if I am in a book store or browsing through book depository and I see a beautiful book, the first thing I do is look at the genre. In bookstores that easy because its usually labelled what section you’re in, on BD I just jump on Goodreads and search it. If it is a YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi, then I may just purchase it, as I enjoy going into books knowing bare minimum if I can help it. I don’t always reads synopsis for that reason.

However if I’m still hesitant then I will check on Goodreads to see if any of my Goodreads friends have read it and look at their rating or want to read it. If Goodreads friends I know I have similar tastes to either want to or have read it and rated it 4 or 5 stars then I will probably pick it up.

This is a section of my ‘friend reviews’ for Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

If it isn’t an as well known book and my friends don’t have any ratings or very few then I might look at the synopsis on goodreads, I don’t always do this as like I said I like going into a book knowing nothing, but if the cover really has me curious and my other methods don’t work then I will read the synopsis and see what it’s about and then I will decide to either pick it up or leave it.

Why Covers Are Important To Look At

So (I really need more words besides ‘so’ to start paragraphs, oh well), the way I see it, book covers are like movie trailers. They are the first thing you see about a new movie and covers are the first thing you see about a book. They are advertisements that are meant to draw you over to that shelf in the book store and make you want to pick that one up. That is just how it is.

Yes I know “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” but you kinda have to when it comes to books you’re not familiar with. You do it without even noticing it. You walk into a bookstore and go into the section for your fave genre and there is a book sitting there with just a grey background colour and the name of the author and title on the front in white and next to it is a gorgeous bright blue coloured book with colourful feathers on it. Which are you going to pick up? The dull one or the beautiful one, of course, most people will pick up the beautiful one and read the blurb from there. That’s how it works. I know that book sitting next to the pretty one could be an amazing book that you would love, but humans are visual things and we can’t help when pretty things draw our attention, it’s human nature.

Of course their is times when you shop for books and the covers aren’t important to you, like if you’re searching for a specific book that you think you’ll enjoy, even if it has a ugly cover in your opinion, you pick that up. But when it comes to books you aren’t familiar with, it is going to happen.

Yes, cover shopping is okay

I think there should be a new term, ‘cover shop’. When you are shopping and you look at books that appeal to you but you assure they are something you will enjoy before actually making the purchase. I’m okay with cover shopping.

So, yes people are going to cover shop, but as long as you are smart enough to make sure it is something you will actually read before choosing to buy it, then you’re fine. If not your thing then just have another look at that beautiful cover and walk away.

Discussion time

Do you cover shop or cover buy?
How do you decide to purchase a new book that you weren’t familiar with prior?
What cover buys have you made?
What cover shopping books have you chosen to purchase and turned out to be amazing books?